


I Always Hear You

by kellebelle



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Clint lies (probably), Emotional Constipation, Feelings, Fluff, Friendship, Homophobia, Hurt feelings, M/M, Natasha is the eternal badass, character outed without their consent, i seriously need to stop writing fluff, maybe one day i will actually write smut, one day i will sit down and write a serious story with actual plot and everything, seriously i don't know why i am posting this, sorry for abusing the tags, talking about feelings, tiny bit of dirty talk, today is not that day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-17
Updated: 2013-06-17
Packaged: 2017-12-15 05:56:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/846084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kellebelle/pseuds/kellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Senior year of high school isn't supposed to feel like this. Steve has been forced to come out of the closet and all he cares about is why he and Tony aren't as close as they used to be.</p><p>(The one where Steve and Tony are too emotionally constipated to realize they have been pining over each other for the past two years of high school.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Always Hear You

"So did you hear about Rogers?"

"Who hasn't? It's all over the school now. He shouldn't be here. Not someone like him."

"Someone like who...?"

Natasha Romanoff stood with her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring at Justin Hammer and some slimeball friend of his she couldn't even remember the name of.

" _You_ know," Justin challenged.

Natasha smiled evenly, stepping closer to the boy. "I think you might want to watch what you say. He might not be the runt you bullied just two years ago, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you think it's okay to talk bad about him."

"He brought it on himself," Slimeball retorted.

"You're about to bring an unfortunate type of pain on yourself if you don't walk away right now."

Slimeball laughed at this. "What are you going to do to us, little gi--."

Justin clamped a hand over his friend's mouth. "We hear you. No reason to get violent."

Natasha simply arched an eyebrow and then smiled when Hammer had to drag the other boy away as he explained that Natasha probably knows ten different ways to rip a man's balls off without breaking a sweat. He had no desire to be on the redhead's angry side again.

High school was almost over. Just one more semester and they'd be away from these idiots forever. She might not be best buds with Steve, but they were still friends and he was the last person to deserve scorn from anyone else in that god forsaken school.

She turned smoothly on her heel and walked away.

*****  
 _Two years ago..._

Tony Stark was sitting just outside the gym when he heard the laughter. He knew from experience that that kind of laughter was the kind usually followed by trouble. He slowly stood up and walked to the corner of the building before peering around the side. A boy, skinny as anything he'd ever seen, was backed into a corner by two basketball players who already had their fists raised. Before Tony could act, one of them punched the boy hard, in the stomach, and laughed as he fell before delivering a kick to his back.

This kid was obviously not going to survive an encounter like that. He swallowed and then cleared his throat, making his presence known. He didn't exactly want to get his ass kicked, but he didn't want to have skinny boy's injuries keeping him awake at night.

"How many cowardly bullies does it take to beat up some kid less than half their size? I have to tell you, the color yellow really does suit you well. Now why don't you run off and go do manly things that involve ass grabbing and vicious chest bumps?" 

"Stark, you should stay out of it unless you finally want that beating you deserve."

Tony smirked. "Oh yes. You can see that I'm already troubled by your idle threats. Your parents will be more than thrilled when my dad's lawyers come knocking on your door."

The boys rolled their eyes but backed off anyway, one of them pointing at the genius as he walked away. “Your time is coming, Stark. You can’t hide behind daddy forever.”

Tony, for all he wanted to retort, walked towards the skinny kid instead and held out a hand to help them up once they were alone.

“I can take care of myself.”

Tony lifted an eyebrow in amusement as he watched the kid slowly pull himself up from the ground and dropped his hand. “I’m sure you can, but it doesn’t hurt to get some help anyway. I’m Tony Stark.”

The kid looked at Tony and after a beat he replied. “Steve Rogers.”

Tony smiled. “Nice to meet you, Steve Rogers.”

Steve just nodded as one of his arms was currently wrapped across his middle and Tony was sure that he was going to have some pretty wicked bruises. “I think you just got yourself into your own trouble by helping.”

“Oh that? Yeah they threaten me on a daily basis. It’s nothing new, but you should see how much they want to be my friend when it’s time for a big science project.” He smiled, showing his teeth, and shrugged. “I guess it helps when your father has the best lawyers ever, but I don’t really like to fall back on that much. Everyone already knows it anyway.”

“Oh.”

Tony continued on. “Are you new here?”

Steve nodded again. “Yeah. We just moved here last week.”

“I’d say stick with me and I’ll help you out, but somehow I think that’d only be worse.”

Steve grimaced in pain. Tony walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, placing the smaller boys arm over his own to help him walk. Steve attempted to protest, but finally gave in when it became too difficult to stand on his own. “I don’t like bullies. I’d rather it be me than anyone else getting pounded on.”

“If you say so, kid.” He ignored the glare Steve shot at him. “I don’t care for them either, so how about I’ll have your back if you have mine?”

Steve considered this for a moment while Tony walked with him to the nurse’s office. “Sure?”

The genius smiled. “I can sense the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” he said somewhat jokingly.

Truth be told, he was sort of eager to find someone to connect with.

Steve shook his head but smiled. “Only if you play your cards right.”

*****  
 _Two years later..._

Steve was in the art room, working on a charcoal piece for his final project. The drawing itself was a blurred image rather than anything with specific detail, but the fact he was rendering his best friend onto the paper didn’t go unnoticed. Even though they had fast become friends, Tony had always seemed to be one step ahead and just out of his reach.

Their friendship had happened fairly naturally and they ended up spending the majority of their time together. Tony was great at helping Steve get through his science classes and in return, Steve was there to cram art history facts into his brain because Tony was notorious for falling asleep in the middle of anything art related. Unless it had to do with music. Tony would listen to anything from AC/DC to Frank Sinatra to Beethoven when he was working, just as long as there was some sort of background noise.

Steve smiled sadly. They had a lot of fun, a lot of memories. It didn’t stop Steve from getting beat up on a regular basis or Tony being mocked endlessly for being a genius in addition to being a “poor little rich boy.” The difference was that they were able to stand up for each other when they could and at some point they began making new friends. James Rhodes and Pepper Potts, Bucky Barnes and Peggy Carter, and eventually Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton just showed up at their lunch table one day and sat down, immediately jumping into a conversation like they had all been friends for the longest time. Bruce Banner showed up not long after. Thor Odinson had developed an interest and dragged Bruce as well as his shifty sort of step-brother Loki Laufeyson into their circle.

For some reason, things changed though. Steve had a growth spurt and started working out over the past summer, showing back up to school looking more like a football player and less like a kid who could easily be tossed into the air by those same jocks (and yeah, they did that once). Whatever he’d had with Tony seemed to be slipping away and it left Steve feeling lost. They still hung out, but where they were talkative before had become awkward silences and even a few arguments that resulted in them not talking to each other for days.

“Are you still working on that drawing?”

Steve looked up with a start, pulled from his thoughts and then smiled. “Oh. Hey, Nat. Yeah. Almost finished.”

Natasha stood over his shoulder and looked down at the paper, tilting her head. “Does he know you’re drawing him?”

Steve shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess not. He hasn’t looked at any of my art in awhile.”

Natasha hummed and then sighed. “You two need to work it out.”

“What is there to work out? I don’t know what’s going on in the first place and Tony won’t tell me. He says he doesn’t know either.”

“We’re going out to the diner in a few. You want to join?”

“Yeah sure,” Steve murmured. “I guess. I don’t know. Maybe not. It might just end up causing problems.”

Natasha took a seat next to him and let her head rest on his shoulder. “We have your back, Steve. You know that. Tony more than anyone. You guys will work it out and until then, Tony will still support you as a friend no matter what.”

“I--...”

“Justin Hammer is just a fucking asshole, Steve. I’m going to end up killing him at some point, and I don’t think I’d care if I went to jail for it. The truth is, you shouldn’t have to hide from everyone. The point is, we’re your friends and we don’t care. The rest of these...imbeciles will be long gone by the end of the week.”

Steve sighed and closed up his sketchbook, putting it in his bag. “I don’t care. I don’t. Hammer is an asshole for outing me to the whole school, but that’s not even the problem. It’s not like I’m ashamed, but I guess it still hurts to hear what everyone thinks they are whispering behind my back.”

“I know. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but keep your head up high. Don’t let them see that you’re hurting because they’re out for blood.”

“Also, I don’t know if Tony has my back now or not. He’s so wrapped up in getting ready for college and trying to impress everyone that I wonder if he even cares anymore.”

“You know he does, Steve. He cares more than you probably realize, but that’s always been the problem with the two of you.”

Steve looked up. “What are you talking about?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Let’s go, Rogers. We’ll discuss the unresolved sexual tension between you and Tony later on.”

Steve sputtered. “What? There is none of that! I think I’d know if there was.”

“No. You wouldn’t. You and Tony are both too stupid to figure it out.”

“Hey! You can’t just say that and expect me not to ask questions.”

She stopped, placing her hands on her hips and sighing heavily. “Okay. Fine. You two have been butting heads so much this year because you both changed and are equally threatened by what you see. You think Tony thinks you’re too dumb and Tony thinks you’re too hot and you’re both driving me crazy.”

Steve frowned. “I don’t--I mean why would he think that?”

“You don’t need his help since you’re bigger than him now, all the girls in the school suddenly realized you exist, and he literally has his own pile of issues that I’m not touching with a ten foot pole because he’s a deeply troubled individual. It boils down to the fact that he’s terrified you’re going to abandon him, but he’s playing that card close to his chest and bluffing by pretending he doesn’t need you anymore.”

“I wish he’d just tell me that himself,” Steve mumbled.

“The same way you’re telling him you’re terrified that he’s going to look down on you because he’s got all this newfound confidence, which is totally fake by the way, and will think that you’re just an idiot not worth talking to?”

Steve scowled at that. “No.” He sighed. “Yeah. I guess so. He’s always been leagues ahead of me, but I never worried he’d be bothered that I couldn’t keep up with him until recently.”

“I don’t think he’d ever feel like that. That’s why I am calling unresolved sexual tension. You guys have it, and if you think I’m making that up, you can ask Peggy and Pepper too. Trust me when I say that Tony is not going to fall into line with all these assholes getting uppity about the fact that you’re gay. You should at least let him know how you feel about him. I mean how you really feel.”

They were standing in front of the diner and Steve couldn’t remember, for the life of him, when they’d even begun walking. He was wondering if now would be a good time to chicken out and run away, but he’d never run away before so why start at this point? So, as Natasha suggested, he walked into the diner with his head held high and a smile on his face.

“Steven, we are so glad you could join us!” Thor already had two burgers in front of him.

Peggy stood up and gave Steve a hug, smiling. “I hear congratulations are in order. You got into art school!”

Steve smiled. “Yeah. And thanks, Peggy.”

“Tony’s pretty excited too,” Pepper chimed in. “Not that he’ll admit it, but you can see it in his eyes. Probably because you’ll be really close to each other, but what do I know?” She winked.  
Steve had no idea how to respond to that. “Oh. I didn’t know he knew I’d gotten in.”

“I think you should be asking yourself what Tony doesn’t know about you, Steve.” That was Bucky. “I’m willing to bet he doesn’t know half as much about the rest of us as a group than he knows about you alone.”

Rhodey snorted, nodding his head in agreement. “Tony could pass the Steve Rogers 101 class with flying colors in a day.”

If Steve was a little red at this point no one said anything about it. “If you say so. Well, make room so I can sit down. I’m starving.”

Loki scooted over enough to let the blond take a seat next to him and used the opportunity to steal half the fries from Thor’s plate.

They eventually became distracted with food and Clint’s stories about joining the circus. They were 87% sure he was lying about going off to do that after graduation, but it was hard to tell with him. He had also tried to convince everyone earlier in the year that he was an assassin with a secret government agency and that his weapon of choice was a bow and arrow. He was most likely going to end up in a Hollywood movie with the way he managed to make up such entertaining stories. Well an 87% chance they were made up.

Near the end of their meal is when Tony walked in. He was becoming a pro at this fashionably late thing.

“Before you ask, I got your cheeseburger waiting for you, Tones. Glad you finally decided to join us, Mr. Rhodey-You-Better-Come-Before-I-Never-See-Your-Headed-for-the-Military-Ass again.”

Tony grinned, pulling his sunglasses down slightly to peer at his friend. “You know me. I like to make an entrance, Rhodey.” He plopped down in the small space that was left next to Steve, making himself comfortable. “Besides, I had a thing and was on the phone with some ingrate who shouldn’t even be working for MIT.”

“Please continue reminding us of what a genius you are, Stark,” Bucky piped up.

Tony cut his eyes toward Steve’s friend. “If you were smart, you’d never need to be reminded in the first place, Barnes. My lateness was in the name of science, so bite me.”

Bruce laughed. He and Tony would probably end up having a long overdue science talk later. Steve sometimes hated that Bruce could keep up with Tony better than he could.

“When are you leaving for Massachusetts?” Steve questioned.

Tony pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and looked at his friend, putting on a smile. “Possibly right after graduation. It depends on whether or not I have anything going on.”

Steve nodded, humming in reply. “You seem ready to go.”

A deep breath and another forced smile later, Tony answered. “I guess. I don’t know if there is really any reason to stick around. It’s not like my dad hasn’t already found me an apartment and told me I need to get out of his hair.”

Steve looked away, shaking his head. “I can see your point.” He roughly poked the ketchup with his fries. “It’s not like you have friends here that might want to see you or anything. I don’t see any reason for you to stay at all. Not when you can go surround yourself with smarter people who can actually keep up with you.”

The smile fell from Tony’s face and he grabbed for the burger Rhodey had ordered for him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Never mind. It’s not important.”

Tony took a bite of his burger and chewed slowly, staring at Steve with a confused expression. “No. Tell me.”

“It’s not important. Just drop it.”

“See what I mean?”

Tony and Steve both glance at Natasha before realizing the rest of the table seemed to be in on some secret discussion they’d missed out on. She gave Steve a pointed look before standing. “I’ve gotta run. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” As she walked by, she smacked Tony on the backside of his head.

It seemed the rest of their group was following suit. Steve watched helplessly as the others tried to leave and felt Peggy’s hand on his shoulder. He smiled at her and she leaned down to kiss his cheek, whispering in his ear. “Now would be a good time for you to talk to him.”

Pepper, on the other hand, told Tony he was under no circumstances allowed to leave until he made a point to talk to Steve. Tony whined, but only a little, and Pepper lightly patted the side of his face. “Be nice. You don’t want to lose any of your friends before college.” She tilted her head slightly to indicate Steve when she said “any of your friends.”

And now things were just weird. After a few minutes of awkward silence, both of them just picking at their food, Steve stood up. “I have to finish my art project. See you later.” He was out the door before Tony could say anything.

It only took Tony another second to get it together before running out the door behind him.

“Steve! Steve, stop. Please!”

Steve did stop and turned around. “What?”

Tony had so much he wanted to say to Steve. All that came out was “why?”

“Why what, Tony?” Steve sounded tired and looked upset and Tony hated that more than anything.

“Why are we not close anymore?”

Steve sighed. “I don’t know. I wish I knew, but I don’t.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Tony asked quietly.

“I--no. You didn’t. It’s just me. I’m not--” he threw his hands up. “I’m not like you.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not smart like you, Tony. I don’t know what happened, but you changed. And so did I. And I think maybe we aren’t cut out to be friends forever.”

“I don’t want to lose you.” Tony sounded small, scared. He looked as miserable as Steve felt.

“You never did. I’ve always tried to keep up with you, but you’ve always been ahead of the game. Ahead of me. And look at you now. You’re this huge deal and suddenly becoming popular and a little arrogant, and you don’t talk to me anymore. When’s the last time you told me anything about your life outside of school?”

Tony looked away, frowning deeply. “There’s nothing to say. Not about my life. It’s the usual. My dad still hates me, my mom doesn’t know what to do with me, and Jarvis is the one who is going to escort me to MIT because neither of my parents can find the time to remember that I exist, that I have a life outside of what my dad has planned for me. Is that what you were looking for?”

“Yeah. I guess. You’re closed off now. More so than you used to be. I miss the way we used to be comfortable with each other. Now we can’t agree on anything. I’ve been trying to just deal with these last few weeks in stride, but it has been hard, Tony. I could have used the kind of friendship we used to have, but do you even know what I’ve been going through?”

Tony nodded quickly, looking right at Steve. “I do. I’ve heard everything. I’ve taken care of Hammer. More or less. He hasn’t realized it yet, but he’s slow and it might take him awhile to notice. I don’t care what he does to me. We’ve always hated each other, but when you fuck with someone I care about, I’m going to get even. So I did."

“Please don’t tell me what you did. I don’t want to know.”

Tony smiled easily. “Mum’s the word.”

“You say that every time, and you still end up telling me because you can’t keep it quiet.”

“I’m a new man?” He shrugged.

Steve took a seat on a nearby bench and sighed heavily, shoulders slumping as he focused on the sidewalk beneath his feet. Eventually Tony came to sit next to him.

“I’ve never thought of myself as smarter than you. I don’t think I’ve met anyone quite like you, Steve Rogers.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be on the same level as you. Not like Bruce is.”

“Well now, what fun would our friendship be if we were just alike? I wouldn’t want to be friends with me. I still don’t know why you want to be friends with me.”

Steve replied before he was able to stop yourself. “Because you’re incredible. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I--I mean, why wouldn’t I?” He was blushing and had to look in the other direction.

“Why haven’t we had this talk sooner?”

“Because we’re stupid?”

“Yeah,” Tony laughed quietly. “We are. We should fix that if you’re going to be so close by when we start college.”

“So you really did hear?”

“I hear everything you say.” Tony was looking at him. Really looking at him and Steve squirmed.

Steve swallowed. “Well then hear this. I might as well say it and see if our friendship can even survive this. The truth is, Tony, that I sort of fell in love with you not long after we became friends. In the beginning it was easy enough to ignore, but I don’t know. We weren’t close anymore and it hurt. I hate that we keep fighting and that I’m freaking out over something as ridiculous as the fact that we have both changed. I thought you’d move on and that we’d never get the chance to have any closure if you did. It even hurt thinking that, but I didn’t know how to talk to you about it. And you can shut me up anytime because I’m sounding like a really cheesy romcom and I don’t want that.”

Tony was quiet. And very still. Steve looked up and realized Tony was staring at him, frozen and he felt his heart break a little.

“Tony?”

“Steve. You--wait you’re in love with me?”

“Is that the only thing you took away from what I was saying?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Well okay, I guess we have to...talk about it?”

“Yes.”

Steve let out a long sigh. “I don’t know how it happened. I kept telling myself that I’d tell you tomorrow and tomorrow happened and I convinced myself to put it off until the next day. Look, it’s fine that you don’t feel the same way, it’s why I never said anything. Like I said, friendship. Don’t want to lose that.”

“You’re right. You are stupid.” At Steve’s hurt look, he held up his hand. “But so am I. Honestly, I thought with all those muscles and whatnot that you wouldn’t need me anymore. That you wouldn’t want my help. That you’d go away. I can’t pretend that I know how relationships are supposed to work. I’ve always, more or less, made it up as I went. If we’re being truthful though, I’d be an idiot not to tell you that I’ve been secretly pining for you as Pepper likes to say. I don’t know why I was so scared to tell you that, but it sucks to know that we’ve seriously wasted this much time keeping it a secret.”

“Yeah. Now that we’re about to graduate.”

“Yeah.” Silence. “But we’ll be close to each other. We can see each other almost any time we want really. And I sort of might want to find a roommate because I don’t like being alone.” He was giving Steve a hopeful look.

“Oh? Oh. I don’t know if that’d be a good idea. We might get tired of each other fast.”

“I expected you to get tired of me a long time ago.”

“I don’t like to meet the expectations of others.”

Tony smiled. “So I’ve noticed. I’m happy about that.”

“So are we...?”

“Are we what?”

“Are we okay, Tony?”

“God I hope so.”

Steve smiled genuinely for the first time. “Good. This mushy talk is killing me.”

“Yeah. Same. Steve?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I take you out on a date?”

“Only if you promise to stick around a little longer.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Are you kidding me? All you ever had to do was ask.”

“Then yes.”

Tony beamed. “Great. I know this awesome restaurant we can go to.”

*****  
 _Four years later..._

Steve woke up slowly, blinking the sleepy from his eyes to find Tony already awake and staring at him. He smiled. “It’s still creepy when you do that.”

“Good. I’ve been trying to wake you up for awhile though. I was about to take sexy drastic measures to get your attention.”

Steve stretched and rolled onto his side, pulling his boyfriend close. “I can go back to sleep if you promise to wake me up with such a drastic manner.”

“Who said you have to go back to sleep for me to do that?”

Steve laughed and kissed Tony’s forehead. “I think we have somewhere to be soon.”

Tony snorted. “Please. I can totally skip graduation for sex all day. That’d be the best present ever.”

“You’re walking. Quit trying to get out of it.”

The brunet pouted. “After graduation then?”

“I think I can be persuaded.”

“Don’t make it sound like such a hassle. You know I’m impatient.”

Steve chuckled and kissed Tony. “We have all the time in the world.” He kissed him once more.

“That’s a long time to be having sex. Which, by the way, is how I intend to spend the rest of this weekend.”

Steve responded with a devilish smile. “Only if you play your cards right.”

**Author's Note:**

> I need to stop writing fluff. I've signed up for the Cap-Iron Man Big Bang, so after I find a prompt I plan to write something sort of amazing that involves plot and character development. Until then, I hope you are able to enjoy the snippets of fluff coming your way. The last part of this story was almost smut, but I chickened out.
> 
> This is my final contribution for the SteveTonyFest of June 2013.


End file.
